Daily JIRA

A daily JIRA companion for the Sentient Workforce project on sentient-smartchat.atlassian.net.

Connection Details

Connector Policy

Always use the native Atlassian connector first. Only fall back to the Zapier JIRA connector if the native connector fails, returns an error, or cannot perform the specific operation.

Native Atlassian Connector (primary)

Use these tools by default for every sub-command:

Known tool limitation — fields parameter

searchJiraIssuesUsingJql has a fields parameter typed as a JSON array, but the runtime serialises it as a string, which the MCP server rejects. Always omit fields. The default payload returns: summary, issuetype, priority, status, description — but not assignee or duedate.

To get assignee, duedate, sprint, subtasks, or parent for a set of issues, call getJiraIssue (with issueIdOrKey) on each issue key individually after the JQL search. This is the correct pattern for all sub-commands that need those fields.

Zapier JIRA Connector (fallback only)

Use the jira_software_cloud_* tools only if the native connector throws an error or lacks the required capability. When falling back, note it briefly (e.g. "Using fallback connector").

Important: Zapier tools require a natural language instructions parameter in addition to their query parameters. Always pass instructions describing the task, e.g. "Find all open issues in project SMTC assigned to the team".

Always scope queries to project = SMTC unless the user specifies otherwise.

Detecting the Sub-Command

If the intent is ambiguous, ask which sub-command the user means. Usually context makes it obvious.

Output Conventions

Issue Table Format

Use this format whenever listing issues:

Type icons: Use emoji only in the Type column (no text label). Add to the legend line above every table. 🗂 Epic · 📖 Story · ✅ Task · 🐛 Bug · 🔹 Subtask

Status colours:

• ⚪ To Do
• 🔵 In Progress
• 🟢 Done
• 🔴 Blocked
• 🟡 In Review

Priority icons: Use the emoji icon only — no text label — so the cell is always a single character that cannot wrap: 🔴 Highest/High · 🟡 Medium · 🟢 Low/Lowest. Add a one-line legend above the table: 🔴 High · 🟡 Medium · 🟢 Low.

Always hyperlink issue keys to https://sentient-smartchat.atlassian.net/browse/[KEY].

If a due date is not set, show — in the Due column.

Column no-wrap rule: The Key, Status, and Due columns must never word-wrap. Use these exact conventions:

• Key: Use a non-breaking hyphen (U+2011 ‑) instead of a regular hyphen inside the issue key display text, e.g. [SMTC‑755](https://sentient-smartchat.atlassian.net/browse/SMTC-755). The URL itself still uses a regular hyphen; only the visible display text uses ‑. This prevents the renderer breaking SMTC- onto its own line.
• Status: Use the emoji icon only — no text label — so the cell is always a single character that cannot wrap: ⚪ To Do · 🔵 In Progress · 🟢 Done · 🔴 Blocked · 🟡 In Review. Add a one-line legend above the table: ⚪ To Do · 🔵 In Progress · 🟢 Done · 🔴 Blocked · 🟡 In Review.
• Due: Use compact DD·Mon format with a middle dot, e.g. 14·Apr (no year unless ambiguous). If not set, show —.

Issue Detail Card Format

Use this format for ISSUE DETAIL and whenever showing a single issue in full:

─────────────────────────────────────────
📖 [SMTC-42](https://sentient-smartchat.atlassian.net/browse/SMTC-42) — Story
─────────────────────────────────────────
Title:      Fix login timeout on session expiry
Status:     🔵 In Progress
Priority:   🔴 High
Assignee:   Chris Yeo
Due Date:   2026-04-15  (or — if not set)
Sprint:     Sprint 3 (active)  (omit if not in a sprint)

Description:
[Full description text, rendered as plain prose. If empty, show "No description provided."]
─────────────────────────────────────────

Sub-Command: TEAM ISSUES

Purpose: Surface all open issues assigned to any team member — including Christopher — so he can see the full team workload, identify blockers, and review distribution at a glance.

Steps

1. Fetch all open project issues with an assignee using searchJiraIssuesUsingJql (no fields parameter):

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   project = SMTC AND assignee is not EMPTY AND statusCategory != Done ORDER BY assignee ASC, priority ASC
   

2. Enrich with full details. Because searchJiraIssuesUsingJql does not return assignee or duedate in its default payload, call getJiraIssue (with issueIdOrKey) on each returned issue key to get the full fields needed for grouping and display. Batch these calls in parallel where possible.

3. Group results by assignee. For each assignee, display a section header followed by their issue table:

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   ### 👤 [Assignee Name] — N open issues
   

   Then the standard issue table (Key, Type, Summary, Status, Priority, Due) for that person's issues.

4. Within each assignee, order issues: In Progress first, then In Review, then To Do, then Blocked.

5. Summary at the bottom:

   N team members · X total open issues · Y in progress · Z blocked

6. If any assignee has Blocked issues, flag them with a ❌ note beneath their table.

Sub-Command: SPRINT

Purpose: Show the full active sprint board — all issues, progress, and blockers — so Christopher can assess sprint health at a glance.

Steps

1. Fetch active sprint issues. Run JQL:

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   project = SMTC AND sprint in openSprints() ORDER BY status ASC, priority ASC
   

2. Get sprint metadata (name, start date, end date, goal) using the sprint information API.

3. Display the sprint header:

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   ## 🏃 Sprint: [Sprint Name]
   📅 [Start Date] → [End Date]  |  🎯 Goal: [Sprint Goal or "No goal set"]
   

4. Show issues in the standard issue table (including Due column), grouped by status category:

   • 🔵 In Progress (N issues)
   • ⚪ To Do (N issues)
   • 🟡 In Review (N issues)
   • 🔴 Blocked (N issues)
   • 🟢 Done (N issues — show count only; list issues only if user asks)

5. Sprint health summary:

   Metric	Value
   Total issues	N
   Completed	N (X%)
   Remaining	N
   Blockers	N
   Days remaining	N

6. If there are Blocked issues, call them out explicitly with a brief note on the blocker.

Sub-Command: STORIES BY EPIC

Purpose: Show all Stories in the SMTC project grouped under their parent Epics — providing a strategic view of feature-level progress. This sub-command surfaces Stories only (not Tasks, Bugs, or Subtasks).

Steps

1. Fetch all open Epics:

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   project = SMTC AND issuetype = Epic AND statusCategory != Done ORDER BY priority ASC
   

2. For each Epic, fetch ALL its child issues — paginate until complete:

   Attempt A — Stories only:

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   project = SMTC AND issuetype = Story AND parent = [EPIC-KEY] ORDER BY status ASC, priority ASC
   

   If isLast: false, keep calling with increasing startAt (use the default page size) until isLast: true. Collect all results before rendering.

   If Attempt A returns 0 results, some epics in this project use Tasks (not Stories) as direct children. Run Attempt B — Stories and Tasks:

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   project = SMTC AND issuetype in (Story, Task) AND parent = [EPIC-KEY] ORDER BY status ASC, priority ASC
   

   Paginate Attempt B the same way until all results are collected.

   Use whichever attempt returns results. Note in the epic header which type was found, e.g. (Tasks) if only Tasks were returned. This is a known data pattern in the SMTC project — e.g. the Carbon Amber epic uses Tasks as its primary work items.

   Never show a pagination notice — always display the complete list.

3. Also fetch orphaned Stories (Stories with no parent Epic):

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   project = SMTC AND issuetype = Story AND parent is EMPTY AND "Epic Link" is EMPTY AND statusCategory != Done
   

4. Display one section per Epic:

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   ### 🗂 [SMTC-XX](link) — [Epic Summary]
   Status: [Epic Status]  |  Priority: [Priority]  |  Progress: ██████░░░░ 6/10 done (60%)
   

   Followed by the standard issue table for that epic's stories (Key, Type, Summary, Status, Priority, Assignee, Due).

5. Orphaned stories appear at the bottom under:

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   ### ❓ No Epic
   

6. Epic progress bar counts Done Stories vs. total Stories under that epic.

   Progress: ████████░░ 8/10 done (80%)

Sub-Command: SUBTASKS

Purpose: Show all sub-tasks belonging to a specific Story, along with their status, assignee, and due date — useful for checking detailed execution progress within a story.

Steps

1. Identify the parent Story. The user will reference it by key (e.g., SMTC-42) or by name. If by name, search:

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   project = SMTC AND issuetype = Story AND summary ~ "[search term]" ORDER BY updated DESC
   

   Show top 3 matches and confirm which story.

2. Fetch the story's detail first — display an Issue Detail Card (see Output Conventions) for the parent story so the user has full context.

3. Fetch its sub-tasks:

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   project = SMTC AND issuetype = Subtask AND parent = [STORY-KEY] ORDER BY status ASC, priority ASC
   

4. Display the sub-tasks using the standard issue table (Key, Type, Summary, Status, Priority, Assignee, Due), grouped by status:

   • 🔵 In Progress
   • ⚪ To Do
   • 🟡 In Review
   • 🔴 Blocked
   • 🟢 Done

5. Summary line:

   X sub-tasks total — Y done, Z remaining

6. If there are no sub-tasks, say so clearly and offer to create one via the CREATE sub-command.

Sub-Command: ISSUE DETAIL

Purpose: Retrieve and display the full details of any Story or Sub-task — including its current status, title, full description, due date, and assignee.

Steps

1. Identify the issue. The user will provide a key (e.g., SMTC-42) or a description. If by description, search:

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   project = SMTC AND summary ~ "[search term]" ORDER BY updated DESC
   

   Show top 3 matches and confirm which issue.

2. Fetch the full issue using getJiraIssue with the issue key. Retrieve at minimum:

   • summary (title)
   • status.name
   • priority.name
   • assignee.displayName
   • description (full text)
   • duedate
   • issuetype.name
   • parent (if a sub-task or story — to show the parent link)
   • sprint (if in an active sprint)

3. Render the Issue Detail Card (see Output Conventions format above).

4. If the issue is a Story, append a sub-task summary beneath the card:

   Sub-tasks: X total — Y done, Z remaining. Say "subtasks for SMTC-XX" to see the full list.

5. If the issue is a Sub-task, show the parent Story link beneath the card:

   Parent: SMTC-XX — [Story title]

6. Offer follow-up actions:

   "Would you like to update this issue, add a comment, or see its sub-tasks?"

Sub-Command: CREATE

Purpose: Create a new JIRA issue in the SMTC project with guided prompts.

Steps

1. Gather required fields. If the user has already provided details inline, extract them. Otherwise ask for:

   • Issue type — Epic / Story / Task / Bug / Subtask (default: Task)
   • Summary — one-line title (required)
   • Description — optional, but suggest adding context
   • Priority — Highest / High / Medium / Low / Lowest (default: Medium)
   • Assignee — default to current user; ask if assigning to someone else
   • Due date — optional; ask if the issue has a deadline
   • Epic link — if type is Story/Task/Bug, offer to link to an existing Epic (show a short list of open epics)
   • Sprint — offer to add to the active sprint (default: yes)

2. Confirm before creating. Show a summary card:

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   📋 New Issue Preview
   Type:     [Task]
   Summary:  [Issue title]
   Priority: [Medium]
   Assignee: [Chris]
   Due:      [2026-04-20 or —]
   Epic:     [SMTC-5 — AI Workforce v2]
   Sprint:   [Sprint 3 (active)]
   

   Ask: "Create this issue?"

3. Create the issue using the JIRA create issue API.

4. On success, present the new issue key as a link:

   ✅ Created SMTC-XX — [Summary]

5. Offer a follow-up action: "Would you like to add a description, set a due date, or link this to another issue?"

Sub-Command: UPDATE

Purpose: Update an existing SMTC issue — transition its status, add a comment, or edit fields.

Steps

1. Identify the issue. The user may provide a key (e.g., SMTC-42) or describe it by name. If by name, search:

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   project = SMTC AND summary ~ "[search term]" ORDER BY updated DESC
   

   Show the top 3 matches and ask the user to confirm which one.

2. Detect the update type from the user's phrasing:

   Intent	Action
   "close", "done", "mark complete", "resolve"	Transition to Done
   "start", "begin", "move to in progress"	Transition to In Progress
   "move to review", "submit for review"	Transition to In Review
   "block", "mark as blocked"	Transition to Blocked (or add label)
   "comment", "add a note", "log"	Add a comment
   "change priority", "reprioritise"	Edit the priority field
   "reassign", "assign to"	Edit the assignee field
   "rename", "update summary"	Edit the summary field
   "set due date", "due by", "deadline"	Edit the due date field
   "link to epic"	Set the epic link field

3. For transitions:

   • Fetch available transitions using getTransitionsForJiraIssue
   • Map the user's intent to the correct transition ID
   • Execute the transition

4. For comments:

   • Compose the comment text (or use the user's exact words)
   • Confirm before posting: "Post this comment to SMTC-XX?"
   • Add the comment

5. Confirm the update:

   ✅ SMTC-XX updated — [what changed]

Edge Cases

• No active sprint: For the SPRINT sub-command, if no sprint is open, report that and show the backlog instead.
• Issue not found by name: If search returns no matches, say so and ask the user to provide the issue key directly.
• Ambiguous sub-command: If the user says something like "show me issues" without specifying a filter, default to TEAM ISSUES.
• Creating an Epic: When issue type is Epic, skip the "Epic Link" field — Epics cannot be children of other Epics.
• Subtask creation: Prompt for the parent Story key when creating a Subtask.
• Permissions error: If a transition or update is rejected, report the error clearly and suggest checking permissions or issue state.
• Story with no sub-tasks: Report clearly and offer to create one.
• Epic with no stories: Report "No stories yet" in the STORIES BY EPIC section but still show the epic header.
• No team members with open issues: For TEAM ISSUES, report that all team issues are either done or unassigned, then offer to show the backlog.
• Due date not set: Always show — in the Due column rather than leaving blank or showing null.